Day 1 Introductions and journals

This week we began our projects in each grade. Overall, each class received their new Artslink journals (a marble composition book), looked at art, and worked on a journal question and/or drawing to help introduce the topics we'll be doing.

 In 2nd grade with Mr Pitt and Ms. Drossner, we're learning about Balance in Science. We looked at Alexander Calder's Circus, wire acrobat figures, and abstract paintings. We experimented with our bodies to see which position of our bodies was easiest to balance- feet apart, feet together, or one foot. We then talked about balance and unbalance in pictures and decided which pictures I drew on the board looked balanced or unbalanced. We noticed that symmetrical pictures definitely were balanced, pictures with similar sized shapes on either side of a picture looked balanced. Pictures with different size shapes on either side felt unbalanced and pictures with lots f shapes on one side and no shapes on the other looked unbalanced.
To practice balance and unbalance in drawings we made 2 pictures in our journals to demonstrate.
Some challenges in 2nd grade are lack of smartboard/digital projector so I can't use powerpoint for my presentations. At least one child speaks no English at all, and so I'll need to think about how I'm giving directions.

 3rd grade is learning about money in Math. Mrs. O'Donnell and Ms. DiDonato's students considered why we put pictures on money. We examined coins and sketched the fronts and backs to see what information is minted on coins. We looked at some artists like Andy Warhol who used images of money in their art and discussed the value of the art (there's $200 printed in this picture, but it was sold for $43 million!) Finally, we planned the symbols we would need for our coin stamps to be made next week.
The biggest challenge in 3rd grade is the class sizes! So many children to keep organized, check in with, and manage supplies. I definitely need to keep things simple and organized with 3rd grade.

 4th grade with Ms. Yancey and Ms. McGinley are learning about rivers and water in Science and concentric shapes in math. We compared and contrasted a Zen garden and a rocky stream image using a Venn diagram to note how water moves around objects. We looked at Art by Edna Andrade and Victor Vasarely, who both used repeating lines in their op art.

 We talked about thin, thick, straight and curved lines, and then created a drawing in our journals. Starting with a selection of simple shapes, we drew concentric lines around them, and then added some meandering lines to fill up the empty spaces.
The classrooms seem bigger in the 4th grade for some reason. Both 4th grades felt very comfortable to me- partially because there are many students who I know very well and it was easy to remember their names. I know many of them like to hop up and come to me for questions- so I need to be strict about raising hands and staying in seats.

 In Ms. Gelfand and Ms Albert's5th grade classes we did much longer journal activities to begin our unit of science study about the sun. We thought about many reasons why the sun and sunlight is important for art- being able to see, having color, enjoying the beauty of the world that grows because of the sun, and working with the sun for art processes like photography. Students were especially amazed by the pinhole photograph below by Tarja Trygg that shows 6 months of the sun crossing the sky.

 We then looked at 4 paintings (a Monet Haystack, a Diebenkorn landscape, a Hopper house, and Rivera's Cactii below) to try to figure out what the time of day was and observe the shadows in each of the pictures. With Ms Albert's class I had everybody do all 4, but in Ms Gelfand's class I had each group do one because of shortened time. They did a great job looking and talking about art.
Some challenges are the large class sizes with wide levels and a few students who have already told me "I can't draw". Well we're going to change that! I'll need to think of some extra ways to differentiate for the various learners in these classes.

Some thoughts I have:
Journals could suck up all our time, so I need to keep it short and sweet.
Journals could help me in sharing directions- have them copy down directions so it's on the board, but also in front of them. 4th and 5th are more facile writers, 2nd and 3rd graders take much longer to write answers, but seem better at drawing answers.

I invite any of the teachers to share their thoughts in comments or in separate posts. I feel very happy right now about how we've begun. The students were very well behaved this week. I feel very comfortable having worked with all the teachers before and knowing so many of the students from before as well. Some of the now-5th graders I know from when they were in 3rd grade, and I know the 4th graders Very well from my extended residency last year.

Schedules and inspiration

At our meeting this week we hashed out the schedule to get our projects started. I'll be coming in on Mondays and Tuesdays all day, and fit in 4 classes a day. Morning classes will be 1 hour and 25 minutes (this gives 5 mintes between classes) and afternoon classes will be 1 hour. Later in the season, perhaps we can switch up the 3rd and 4th grades to give Miss Yancey and Miss DiDonato's classes some more time. It was decided that 2nd grade would only have an hour to better match 2nd grade attention spans. The upcoming schedule of events has been posted in the sidebar at right for each grade.

 2nd grade will be working on balance and inverse addition/subtraction number facts. To start off we'll be taking inspiration from Alexander Calder's mobiles to create our own group kinetic sculpture. Later we will doa  printmaking project to explore positive and negative space and pattern and repetition.

3rd grade will be exploring money and value math skills. We will look at the features of coin design and create our own coin stamps to create value/repetition compositions. We'll calculate the resulting value of our prints and make borders to represent change back from a specified value. We'll also discuss the value of art compared to rarity and hold a mock art auction.

4th grade will be learning about rivers and the interaction of water and landforms. We will explore concentric lines to represent the path of least resistance in making river embroideries like the zen garden above. We will then work in groups to make larger erosion sculptures to show how water carves away land.

 5th grade will be exploring light, shadows, and elapsed time. We will begin with shadow paintings to show how colors interact and how the sun moves across the sky. We will then create sunprints with light sensitive cloth to represent our understanding of time.

Pilot Projects Spring 2011

From May to June 2011, a  pilot program was launched to focus on math and arts integration at Comly Elementary school. One Kindergarten, one second grade, two third grades, one fourth grade, and two fifth grade classes participated. Th classroom teachers selected particular math skills their students needed to review, and we developed projects to explore those specific skills through art.



Kindergarten number mosaic



The Kindergarten class focused on number models and counting in a button mosaic. Each student was assigned a number, counting was practiced when counting out mosaic pieces, special pieces of sequins or pompoms were selected to represent their numbers, and laying out the individual pieces in an array helped review counting by 5s.

2nd grade foursquare time story sketch

 The second grade focused on telling time and telling time stories. We created a group clock to use as a classroom practice clock, then we began a number story fabric collage project. Students started with a foursquare organizer for their sketches, and then used fabric scraps to illustrate their stories.


2nd grade number story fabric collages

  Warm colors were used to represent am and cool colors represented pm. The collages were all arranged in a film strip/timeline format banner and students got to tell their stories to the whole class.


2nd grade time story banner




3rd grade probability cross-stitch

 3rd graders were focused on learning probability. Students made a color die with either a 2/2/2, 3/2/1, or 4/1/1 color combination. The rolled their die 100 times and kept a running tally of each color rolled. The results were graphed onto gingham and cross-stitch x's were stitched to mark each tally. Some were more like bar graphs, and others were a little more inventive with the placement of colors


checkerboard distribution of tally mark colors

 4th graders were focused on calculating volume of geometric solids. We measured and cut plastic canvas to construct a needlepoint cube. Student created an initial stripe pattern to mark one centimeter width on their cube, and used different colors, patterns, and stitches on each side.

 The sides were stitched together and students measured and calculated the volume of their own cube, and the aggregate volume of the entire class's cubes.


calculating volume

  Students arranged their cubes in various sculptural formations and recalculated volume of the resulting forms as well. We really stretched their multiplication practice with decimal points due to the irregularly cut canvas squares!

4th grade cube combos

5th grade focused on surface area of geometric solids. We selected a cylinder as the major form we would make. Student designed 2 inch square designs with their initials and shapes, then printed vertical and horizontal stripes on fabric rectangles to mark out the base and height of their cylinder.


printmaking station

 For the top and bottom circles, students designed radial symmetry patterns to mark out radius/diameter needed for calculating area of a circle.

 Their pieces were sewn together, and students stuffed and handsewed the closures. Additionally, their cylinder/pillows were signed by every student in the class to serve as a souvenir for this graduating class.

The pilot projects were short and sweet and gave an initial opportunity for artist and teachers to get used to each other and get their feet wet in arts integration.